Think Of Me Remember Me
by Kurai Kiryu
Summary: The Doctor and Rose find an old friend of the Doctor's on a trip. After Age of Steel, Spoilers from Caerdroia.


_Summary: The Doctor and Rose find an old friend of the Doctor's on a trip. After Age of Steel, Spoilers from __Caerdroia__._

_Big thanks to Jennie or whereismydamnangel on tumblr for beta read this story and to Sami (sonicmetennant) who read it first._

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**Think of Me, Remember Me**

"You could..." he scratched the back of his head "Stay. Stay with me, Charley?"

There was so much sincerity in his plea. She indulged the fantasy for a while and smiled brightly, letting herself consider an affirmative answer for just a moment, but soon her eyes filled with sadness.

"And we would live adventures! All time and space at my fingertips again. Watch the birth of Suns, fall of empires, go to royal balls and start revolutions!"

"Oh yes!" He smiled too. A big maniac smile, she thought about her Tigger Doctor with amusement.

"I can't."

He frowned.

"Why not?!"

"Oh Doctor…" She said with a sigh and glanced at Rose. Just a bit far from them, chatting happily with the people they just saved. Laughing even. She might have felt Charley's and the Doctor's stare; because she waved at them; Charley waved back. "I think you know."

"Rose?! But I thought you both got along pretty well! Better then Rose got on with Sarah Jane thought…"

She turned back to him, blushing a bit.

"No, no! There is nothing wrong with her! It's just… It's her time now."

"Her time?"

Charley paused for a moment, trying to find a way to put that on words without making any damage.

"Doctor, it's beyond obvious how this girl feels about you and even clear that it's reciprocated I don't want to be in the middle of this. I.. I still love you…" She inhaled heavily. "And I like to think that, somewhere deep inside, you still love me too, but you've changed. You are now this marvelous new man that I don't know it all!" She sighed. "I must let it stay the way it is. Because I know how easily I would fall for this new new you. It's still _you_ after all!" She paused once more and took his hands, smiling again and encouraging him to do the same. "How I was relieved when I saw that you weren't dead! That you remember me! But I can't. It took time, but I finally understand that my time with you is over and I have to move on."

He couldn't say anything for a while, and when he spoke his voice was hoarse.

"Why would I not remember you, Charley?" There was a bit of accusation in his tone.

She just smiled sadly and shook her head, tears badly held back and let his hands fall.

"Doctor!" They turned to a panting Rose. Both forcing their best fake smiles. "You won't believe what they have! Edible ball bearings!"

"Nooo!" Said the Doctor with astonishment, hiding too well his sadness. "I don't believe it! It isn't even Earth!"

"_I know!_"

"What's about the both of you with this "edible ball bearing" thing?"

"Oh Charley, it's the best thing you people ever invented!" He said, _bouncing_. Very Tigger Doctor indeed.

"Better than tea?" She teased.

"Humans didn't invent tea! Actually were the Sylvverians…" And he gave a very long lecture about people they didn't know, of a place they had never heard about, of a time they never even dreamed existed.

"Did your Doctor have this much of gob too?" Asked Rose as they walked. "Or he could keep his mouth shut for more than five milliseconds?"

"Actually… Worse The very worst. The loonie talked to himself all the time. Even if there were other people in the room."

"Hey! I heard that, Miss Pollard!"

"And you know it is true," She sing-songed.

Rose giggled and opened the door of the TARDIS. They got inside, Charley still trying to get used to the changes.

"I kept missing the way she was the first time we met… Even now. The funny thing is that I was always saying how gloomy this room was, with all those candles and gothic furniture, and after…" She trilled away and Rose snorted imaging if there was a poster of Marilyn Mason on the wall too, she would tease him about it later. "Maybe one of the reasons that she did never liked me."

"The _TARDIS_ doesn't like you?" Asked Rose with estrangement.

"The Old Girl doesn't spoil all my companions the way she does with you, Rose Tyler. You should feel very, very lucky." He started moving around the console, lifting levers and doing his Doctor business. "So, Charlotte Elspeth Pollard, if you are not staying with me and Rose, where do I drop you? The 30's again?"

"You mean finally the 30's, don't you? And if you call me this way again…" She sent him a glare filled with dark promises.

"Soooo, 30's then. You know you still can't…"

"Contact my family? I wouldn't. Look at me Doctor, I don't think they would even recognize me."

He stopped his "dance" for a moment and put on his specs, taking a good look at her.

"You look pretty much the same I remember, maybe a bit older, longer hair, less blondie. You're what, now? Thirty-two?"

She laughed.

"How should I know?! Thanks to you the last time I had a proper birthday I was 18-years-old!"

"Regrets?"

"Not any I could change."

He smiled again, brightly.

Rose watched they smiling for each other, trying to not feel too glad that Charley wasn't staying. But It was worse than the time with Sarah Jane, because Charley didn't go all defensive on her. She saved Rose's life, but didn't seem to feel all superior about that. She joked about the Doctor's new face and suit and they worked as a team. Making the job of not liking her a very hard one, and the way the Doctor looked to that woman… He should just look that way to her, to Rose, shouldn't he?

"Sure you don't want to stay? Not even for a single trip?"

The sad smile wasn't so sad this time and her voice more firm.

"Sure."

"Where and when then, Charley?"

"I have no idea." She laughed. "But I think Earth would be nice."

"Earth then."

"Ever met the 21st century, Charley?" Asked Rose. "We could visit mum and drop her, Doctor?"

He moaned.

"But, Roooooose! Again?! We've just visited Jackie!"

"That is so not true! I'm counting, Doctor, well, sort of, and I haven't seeing my mum for two months!"

"21st century is fine for you, Charley?"

"Guess it is. Last time you though I was left there, wasn't it?"

"Weren't you?" She smiled enigmatically and he knew she wouldn't give a clear answer. "XXI century it is! Allons-y!"

"XXI century, 2006, Earth, London, Powell State."

Rose appeared from the depths of the ship carrying a huge backpack.

"I'm going to mum's and let your two to say goodbye alone." She took Charley's hand. "I loved to meet you. I hope we'll see each other again."

Charley smiled warmly and hugged the younger girl.

"I loved to meet you, too. Take care of this one. He would be lost without someone to share this crazy life of his."

"I will. Bye, Charley."

"Good bye, Rose."

"Mum, will be waiting you for tea."

"Tea with Jackie Tyler," he said putting his hands on his pockets "I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

She rolled her eyes.

"Sass doesn't fit this regeneration very well, you should know." But she was smiling with her tongue between her teeth and before he could say a thing, she was gone.

They walked off the TARDIS and watched Rose getting inside her home.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything. Weeeeeell, except the thing I can't."

"You think you're so funny this way 'round, don't you?" She teased.

"I'm always funny! Hilarious, master of laughs, king of comic things. No, forget that one, was awful."

"Oh, shut up, Doctor! And listen."

"Ok, say what you need."

She breathed deeply.

"It's a bit silly… Doctor, you won't remember, don't _try_ to remember, but you forget about me before… Not just those times when you were all green velvet and Mary Shelley and not just because I could have died if the other you hadn't heard my call, but because it hurts." She paused and looked at her hands, trying to go on.

"Did you met other versions of me?"

She looked up to him.

"Yes. No, you won't remember it. Don't try to!" She breathed deeply again. "Please don't interrupt me again, this is difficult to say." He nodded putting his hands in this long coat's pockets. "What I mean is: Even if you had no fault in that, every time I learned that you forgot about me it killed me a bit."

She closed her eyes frowning.

"So… What I want. What I'm asking you is to remember me."

Charley opened her eyes again, this time looking directly to his.

"It doesn't have to be every day, but sometimes when you're be dancing with Rose on a fancy ball in a renaissance French, remember us and that awful almost marriage of mine in Venice." They smiled at each other and she felt brave enough to go on. "Every time you have Christmas with Plum Pudding, think of me for a second. And when the TARDIS goes moody and start to behave badly, remember that it would be a lot of worse if I was here too."

She stopped again, her voice was beginning to sound whining as she lost the fight against the tears.

"I can't be with you forever. I can't travel with you anymore, but if you think of me sometimes maybe I can be with you a little. Because Doctor, you'll be always in my heart and in my prayers and I'll miss you every day until I die."

The tears were falling freely now.

"Oh heavens I didn't want to get so emotive!" He hugged her, holding her tight. "I'm really so happy that I found you again, alive and I dare to say happy!"

"I will remember you, Charley. I promise."

"Thank you," she said against his coat and giggled. "You are so tall, now. I'm on the tip of my toes. Now, let me look at you."

He freed her and she marveled at seeing that his eyes were wet too. He looked so much younger with all those freckles and spikey hair. Charley tried to memorize that face. After all, it was another him that she would miss.

"Time to go," she said after a long moment, trying to dry her eyes with the back of her hands.

"You really don't want me to drop you somewhere else? Singapore, maybe?" He asked.

"Oh, no. Here's quite nice. And Rose's mum is waiting for you." He made a face, she laughed. "Guess this is it. Goodbye you moody amazing thing," Charley said patting the blue box, then she turned back to the Doctor. "Goodbye old friend."

He held her in his arms once again, and remembered how he once loved that woman. How he still did. And he would remember her, of course he would, he always remember. All of them, even if they always leave him in the end.

"Goodbye. Charley."

He let her go what appeared to be hours after and too soon. She turned and went away, not daring to look back.

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**A/N: Believe me it supposed to be just a drabble write in guilty for my ridiculous ****contribution to this fandom and a personal challenge: I wanted to discover if I could write in English. But I don't think I'll do it too often, I'm used to write in Portuguese and I feel odd when Ana can't read my fics. I could translate them, but translate my own works is boooring.**

**Anyway, it was fun! I hope you'll like it too.**


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